ED Steph ‘The Breeze’ didn’t mention Pacifica losing $305k. And neither did anyone else.
But she was directed to make a disclosure: even though station after station is currently in fund-drive, there won’t be enuf cash around on Sa31Dec to pay FJC their quarterly interest, this time $55 402.99 (working is below).
This coming after her start, “I don’t have a lot to report”. So that kind of report.
So all hell’s breaking loose, then.
Her report:
“I don’t have a lot to report, umm, not a lot has changed since last week […] umm, really not too much else […] And I think that really is, at this point, is about it, if anybody has any questions.”
That was it.
Oh.
Chair ‘wooden as a chair’ Sagurton was straight in: what about FJC?
“[Pause …] Ah, yer, that’s, umm, that’s the number one, really, on our aged payables, and payable of concern. We do not have any funds that are set aside to be able to prepare us for that payment. Umm, it is due on the 31st. We did mention it to Arthur [Schwartz, General Counsel], umm, a few weeks ago, that we were concerned that we weren’t going to be able to make that interest payment, umm, and then he and I also spoke about it as well, so he was going to give them a call and see if we again [this a new disclosure] could have a couple of, umm, a couple of days of grace with that, or if we can just make, you know, wh-wh- – what we are planning on doing is paying what we can when we have it, and then hoping to extend that out [?]”
Of course no-one asked whether Arthur had phoned FJC, & what they said.
(Also note – contra Susan ‘blah-blah’ Young (23:15), a KPFT listener-delegate – FJC, as explained for 4yrs on this blog & elsewhere, never allows a borrower to default: when a loan is designated as “potentially impaired” it’s sold, without discount, to the Marty & Dorothy Silverman Foundation, the money that largely founded FJC.)
ED Steph ‘The Breeze’ Wells (19:32; her report all of 123secs, 19:45-21:48), Tu13Dec2022 PNB Finance Cttee. (The FJC interest rate went up from 9.25% to 10%, effective Th3Nov. Working: ((2258821 x 0.0925 x 33) ÷ 365) + ((2258821 x 0.1 x 59)÷ 365) = 18890.550 + 36512.449 = $55 402.99.)
So all that’s going to work out well . . . everything under control.
Oh.
Steph ‘The Breeze’. PMC thru-n-thru. An operator. Of her class stratum. An advert for NGO management.
~
And ‘The Breeze’ volunteered no update on ‘the server problem’, that is, being shut out of Pacifica’s digitised books of account. And everyone was polite enough not to ask. So obviously not merely a problem, but a problem affording no progress. No progress at all. Proving intractable.
These people are unbelievable. They really are.
~
Nor even a hint of a waft regarding progress on the pesky outsiders from National being impertinent, trying to directly view station bank accounts. Trying to find out what the hell’s going on. Again, decorum prevailed amongst Pacifica’s financial wizards, leaving the non-event well alone, as still as a sleeping dog, as tranquil as dead air.
~
Last, as is a habit of Pacifica decision-makers, confidential info gets disclosed. Even of the medical condition of individuals. This time Mr Lawrence Reyes, longstanding KPFK listener-delegate & director. Let’s hope he’s well soon.
[UPDATE: the audio of this meet still not available from Pacifica as of 1400 MT, Su11Dec. The last audio of the PNB at https://kpftx.org/archive.php is Th10Nov (sic) – so missing are the last three: Th17Nov, Th1Dec, & Th8Dec. (The gap was when the world, aka ‘USA! USA! USA!’, including PacificaWorld, stopped to celebrate betrayal, occupation, sociéticide, & genocide.) In the last 4wks, since M14Nov, a total of 26 public meets (sic) have no audio – for reason of style, they’re listed at the end.]
[You may have noticed that KPFA is the only station with an exemplary record – it had no meetings!
[As of Su11Dec, for the 4wk period, only 8 public meets have audio; so 23.52% ≃ 24% (8 ÷ 34). And that’s excluding the 2 community advisory board meets in the period (KPFK & WBAI [UPDATE: one was subsequently posted, per note #1 above]), none having audio (so much for helping peeps acquaint themselves with the mores of the proceedings, & perhaps volunteering to join a CAB).
. . . Pacifica Evening News, spilling the beans, broadcasted by KPFA, 1800 PT, Th8Dec2022, during the meet of the Pacifica National Board, where the directors sleepwalkers were choosing to conceal reality from their listening public – pathetic. https://kpfa.org/episode/the-pacifica-evening-news-weekdays-december-8-2022/(The screenshot has been updated to show the inclusion a few hours later of a ‘button’ to an added transcript – the URL of that page is at the very end of this post.) . . .
So broadcasted during the PNB meeting, 30mins after it was due to start at 2030 ET, 1730 PT.
~
“$305k” seized “this week”.
Oh.
Layoffs underway – “10 positions” announced “Monday”.
Oh.
. . . double oh . . .
Helps explain why KPFA Treasurer Chris ‘Janus’ Cory (staff-delegate) wasn’t at the Tu6Dec PNB Finance Cttee, with Chair Sagurton silent on any comms with him, & no-one mentioning that there wasn’t an excused absence item on the agenda. These peeps would have excelled in Stalinist times.
Helps explain why at the Cttee two weeks before, Tu22Nov, Cory, curiously cryptic:
“[w]e have a lot of undeclared assets within the organization. If we’re talking about declaring those assets that creates a lot of trouble for us. Umm, so [false laugh, expertly delivered – as usual] […] I don’t see any problem creating an informal balance sheet which also has undeclared assets on it […] But, umm, yah, urr, making it more formal than that I-I-I-I definitely see, I-I definitely [see] problems with that” (7:46).
Undeclared assets, you say? . . .
Odd, you may think?
But the Cttee knew.
So silence.
Chris ‘Janus’ Cory (7:46), Tu22Nov2022 PNB Finance Cttee – https://kpftx.org/archives/pnb/finance/221122/finance221122b.mp3. (He was commenting on the motion from Beth ‘I prefer to pose rather than propose policy ensuring the ED controls the GM’s & bookkeepers’ Gunten (KPFK listener-delegate), the motion for the PNB to have two documents: “management shall provide a complete current balance sheet […] and […] an overall Pacifica business plan proposing a path forward from Pacifica’s current financial predicament into a viable future”, this “in advance of any further consideration of irrevocable liquidation and disposition of proceeds from [the sale of] any significant Pacifica capital asset” (a-file, 58:15).)
Interesting, yes? But will any delegate, of any local station board, publicly ask their treasurer or director sleepwalker what the hell are these “undeclared assets”? Of course not. The public record shows most don’t even know what’s going on at national.
The lack of scrutinisers is one reason why the Pacifica decision-makers keep getting away with their incompetence. Unfortunately, revelation is usually the result of external discipline, from contractors or the state.
~
Layoffs numbering 10 is somewhat dramatic. But the whole picture is different, as revealed by the newsreader herself:
“[o]n Monday, KPFA management announced 10 positions would be laid off, totaling 150 hours, effective [Friday] December 30th, including producers and engineers” (5:20).
150hrs. This explains why the talk of 10 peeps isn’t as drastic as it seems – for the station. 150hrs, presumably per week, is 4 full-time equivalents (approximate saving of 4 x $80k = $320k per annum). And the present KPFA complement? Per the Aug2022 KPFA net income statement (such as it is), personnel expenses for the first 11mths of FY2022 were $2 259 812 … annualising as $2 465 249 … @$80k = 30.82 FTE ≃ 31 FTE. So the loss of 4 FTE is a 12.9% drop, ~13% (4 ÷ 31); roughly 1-in-8 laid off.
Aug2022 Pacifica net income statements, https://mega.nz/file/oc91RQDJ#RKw7_pFuAJ2DTTXhrJR2lC0pwKzxgLVhI2myX1RXUsA. Incidently, the file data are not without interest: “Authors[:] columbia”, as per usual this year, not least because Columbia, South Carolina is the location of NETA’s HQ – https://www.netaonline.org/about-us; & “Content created[:] 2/10/2022”, so presumably NETA hung onto it for over 2mths awaiting payment from Pacifica – why weren’t the members, other donors, staff & listeners told of this? (At Tu6Dec, NETA was owed “I believe it’s close to a little under [$]40 000” (46:45), if one can believe ED Steph ‘The Breeze’ Wells, not least because since 22Sep (when NETA left) Pacifica has lacked fiscal management – Tu6Dec2022 PNB Finance Cttee, https://kpftx.org/archives/pnb/finance/221206/finance221206a.mp3.)
~
And there’s another small matter:
just in case peeps think KPFA was on top of the world before this hiccup, its Aug2022 net income statement declares something never mentioned at the PNB Finance Cttee, even that of Tu6Dec when this ‘report’ was presented to it by ED Steph ‘The Breeze’ Wells, protecting NBM Markisha from scrutiny: KPFA has made an 11mth loss of $282 634.
. . . triple oh . . .
And this loss is more than WBAI’s!!!
KPFA’s loss is 61% more than WBAI’s!!! (282634 ÷ 175721)
. . . quadruple & quintuple oh !!!
The Aug monthlies are a mess, even arithmetically – not least for understating WBAI’s total revenue in the totals column by ~$140k! WBAI’s loss isn’t the stated $311 893: it’s $175 721. The restatement: loss = $ −311893 + ((9065 + 129158) − (1031 + 1020)) = −$175 721. Put another way, the loss, restated = revenue − expenses = $ (1129246 + 9065 + 129158) − ((1208907 + 1031 + 1020) + 232232) = 1267469 − 1443190 = −$175 721. This also means WBAI made a net gain of $56 511 before applying the Central Services charge. (Note, put to one side has been the nonsense concerning (a) the Aug telephone charge (being bigger than the year-to-date carried-forward total – sic), & (b) there being the usual office rent charge for Aug but the B/F & C/F totals are the same . . . can, worms.)
The directors sleepwalkers have chosen not to have a chief financial officer. The directors sleepwalkers have chosen to not even have an accounting professional, a CPA, a certified public accountant. Instead, the directors sleepwalkers have chosen to do it all by themselves, do it all without the expertise of a specialist. The directors sleepwalkers have chosen to fly blind. To fly a $11m annual turnover public charity completely blind. To fly without fiscal management. Defying the California Corporations Code requirement that a corporation have a chief financial officer (§§ 312, 5213).
At the Th8Dec PNB itself, the directors sleepwalkers pussy-footed around with euphemisms, refusing to call a spade a spade. The executive director also chose to say nothing in her report – yes, that’s the sort of ED we have. All this ensured the cash cow punters, Joe & Joanna Public, got what they think they deserve: nothing.
But KPFA, that black site, was breaking the news.
~
Note, the news report stated two falsehoods.
First, the framing was “parent” & so subsidiary, “Pacifica Foundation” & “KPFA”. No, the only legal personality in this is Pacifica: KPFA is Pacifica thru-n-thru, not related to it externally, but related internally: what’s here is an inner-connection.
Nevertheless, the breakers will try to ‘spin’ the state action to their advantage, mounting a defence of KPFA, not Pacifica – to the contrary, Pacifica will be presented as the problem. Will the anti-breakers respond, & how? Are the anti-breakers organised?
Are the anti-breakers ready for the coming storm?
The answer, we know.
Second, twice the report spoke of “KPFA assets”: no, all assets are those of Pacifica Foundation, Inc. A station holds, owns, no assets: a station is simply a manager of Pacifica assets (& liabilities), a custodian. There being ‘KPFA assets’ is a fantasy. There being a ‘KPFA building’ is a fantasy. This is because a station lacks legal personality. It’s an accounting unit. All this whilst the listeners usually live the station in quite a different way, as an attachment, living it affectively, cognitively, conatively. This can be purely utilitarian: the station as object, used as a means to satisfy wants or needs. But the relationship can be much more: causing a merging of self & object, an immersing, even turning into submerging: ‘soy Cuba’ ‘I am KPFA’. Generating a proprietary consciousness, disposition, &, crucially, orientation. Motivating. Lived with passion, even obsession. Escalating to an animosity towards opponents, the unbelievers. Persecuting perceived enemies. Hatching plans to separate the station, the physicality, from its current social organisation, it being an integral part of Pacifica. All this is a far cry from simply appreciating a radio station, holding it dear – caring for its programmes & what the station represents in an oppressive world.
This is why talk of “KPFA assets” is not benign: it’s part of a separatist politics. “KPFA assets” is a conception consistent with an ideology of station chauvinism, the polity of a fiefdom, & a separatist political practice; a conception antagonistic & alien to Pacifica pride & the polity of a network, one that could be powered by a network development plan – but that’s a path not taken, a path now closed off.
[UPDATE: KPFA is currently in fund-drive, 11days, Tu6-F16Dec. Something happened Friday morning, 9Dec, just after 0700 PT. The news summary ended with the Fed raid (6:29), & this was immediately elaborated upon by the presenter of UpFront. Yes, Brian Edwards-Tiekert gave his take (8:25), framing KPFA as captured by a corporate power that messes up, before dumping on the station:
“our parent organization, the-the Pacifica Foundation, the-the corporation that owns KPFA, has been severely financially distressed for some time, umm, and, I-I think it’s safe to say, quite poorly managed for a lot of that time. We at KPFA have mostly been insulated from that by, umm, local managers who-who ran a lot of interference for us, and by you, umm, by-by the fact that every time we’ve asked, you have stepped up and contributed enough money that-that we could keep paying KPFA’s bills no matter what was happening in the rest of the network”
[After a while he asked for money, & from 14:06 the broadcast continued with a prepared package, Zirin on the NFL. Whether it was down to Dave, the chosen item, or The Descent of the Feds, within the hour, after a longer reading of the news of the Feds, Brian was almost in tears:
“[w]hat I am awe-struck to report is h-how your fellow listeners have responded. Umm. To put this in context, during fundraising, you know, i’-if-if we raise $2 000 during the 7am hour, you know, we feel like we show[ed] up for work and we did our job. If we raise $4 000 during the 7am hour, we feel like we had a really good day. This morning, during the 7am hour of fundraising on KPFA, after we explained our situation, your fellow listeners contributed a total of $15 016. I-I can’t express to you how much that means to us”
Brian Edwards-Tiekert (9:24), fundraising for the next hour instead of Sabrina ‘you think I’m being nasty? I’m not even trying’ Jacobs, her show suitably titled A Rude Awakening, F9Dec2022 – https://archives.kpfa.org/data/20221209-Fri0800.mp3
This is becoming an unfortunate habit, the relevant Pacifica decision-makers & workers not bothering to post the audios of meetings, or doing so late. Low priority. Or not even registering. This has the anti-democratic effect of materially restricting the dissemination of knowledge (not simply info), plus discouraging the involvement of new peeps, especially those under the age of 70. The latest example is Thursday’s PNB meet. The same thing happened for two meets on Wednesday – still not posted at https://kpftx.org/archive.php as of 1600 MT, Su4Dec:
Teresa Allen (KPFT listener-delegate) saying solemnly, slowly, with great gravity, “[s]omething’s happened today” (11:12). Oh.
Oh dear. And she asked the Chair if it’s on the agenda for the closed meeting, & as the first item. Within seconds an interjected “yes” was heard from a KPFA staff-delegate, Darlene Pagano. (So a KPFA matter?) Then came a slow, purposeful nod from PNB Chair Julie ‘I’m so corrupt I’m insisting that Eileen Rosin is a delegate even though her 6yrs expired on 22June’ Hewitt.
Wonder what alarmed Teresa, wonder what happened? Does anybody work for Teresa, at her sour cream creamery? If so, please drop PacificaWatch a line, at pacificawatch@tutamail.com.
Off-topic, I know, but there should always be room for hearing a heart-warming story: Teresa must feel so at home surrounded by all that sour produce. Some peeps are so lucky, finding their niche in the world. Truly blessed. Can we have a hallelujah? . . . Hallelujah!!! Can we have a hallelujah? . . . Hallelujah!!! Can we have a hallelujah? . . . Hallelujah!!! Praise the Lord!
~
[UPDATE:
[Our answer is revealed by the Vernile court docs. It’s about the seized $304 986.00. It seems that Th1Dec was when the Pacifica directors, as a group, found out. The docs have some real peculiarities – not least the deposition from Maria, KPFA’s business manager, made in support of Vernile & against her employer, Pacifica Foundation, Inc.: “declaration of Maria Negret in opposition to application for post-judgment ex parte relief”. A true volunteer: “if called as a witness I could testify”. In for a penny, in for a pound.
[An oddity is her physical evidence that the money was seized on W23Nov – yet she implies that the first anyone at Pacifica learnt of this was M28Nov (sic). She further implies that for the best part of 3days the news was kept at KPFA, with her sharing it with KPFA LSB Chair Christina ‘Nurse Ratched’ Huggins & GM Antonio Ortiz – and presumably others. It was only at c. 0905 PT, on Th1Dec, that ED Wells was informed (double sic) – who no doubt passed on the glad tidings to General Counsel Arthur Schwartz. Don’t you just luv it?
[If the Lord grants a minion strength, then the court docs will be written up – as ‘The Strange Case of Maria & the Cockatoo’. Can’t be fairer than that.]
Guess the anniversary never even got to Amy’s editorial meeting this morn. So here it is.
Bare leads, WBAI’s master control studio (W9Oct2019 photo; courtesy of R Paul Martin)
R Paul Martin: “[n]ot pictured is the vacant space where the Emergency Alert System (EAS) module had been. It is illegal for WBAI, or any radio or TV station in the United States of America, to operate without a functional EAS capability.”
~
Lockout notice, new locks on the door, 3rd floor (W9Oct2019 photo; courtesy of R Paul Martin)
After the W9Oct WBAI Local Station Board, R Paul Martin & other staff went to the building housing the station, got inside, & saw the damage.
This was the work of “a group composed of Pacifica interim Executive Director (iED) John Vernile, Pacifica National Board Directors Bill Crosier (KPFT) and Adrienne LaViolette (KPFT) and Moe Thomas, Chief Engineer of WPFW”. Pacifica’s very own wrecking crew. WCP.
That 9Oct WBAI LSB meeting (2:03:39; videographer, Joe Friendly):
~
Protest outside City Hall, 15Oct (59:42; videographer, Joe Friendly):
~~~
There are quite a few PacificaWatch blogposts about this attack on Pacifica by the breakers. Please scroll down on the right, or click ‘WBAI’ in the list of folders at the end of this post.
But the saddest thing is that the political lesson hasn’t been learnt: Pacifica partisans have to be strategic, have a plan, & not just be reactive to the repeated initiatives of the breakers. One year on, the only change is deleterious, a further reinforcing of established routines.
‘Peruvian’ Lynden isn’t just an average breaker: he’s named in the groundhog scheme to give Pacifica a new constitution, the so-called by-laws petition doing the rounds. Lynden would be Pacifica’s treasurer, one of four breaker-appointed officers running a reconstituted Pacifica until “early December” 2023 (proposed Article 4, Section 13, added emphases), officers “responsible both for implementing the New Day Pacifica Bylaws and also bringing Pacifica back to financial and governance health during the transition”.
. . . the federal judge for the M21Oct WBAI v. Pacifica hearing, someone with form: in 2012 he ruled as lawful this advert on buses of NY’s MTA . . .
The judge at today’s hearing is Paul Adam Engelmayer. On 20July2012 he ruled against the NY Metropolitan Transport Authority (MTA), after they had refused to carry on their buses an ad, shown above, that they saw violated their no-demeaning policy.
No prob for Paul, because the MTA’s no-demeaning policy was discriminatory, allowing the demeaning of those people not specifically denoted by the policy, &, anyway, this was a matter of core political speech, protected under the First Amendment.
So there you are. The group bringing the case got permission to carry out their plan, putting the ad on over 300 buses for four weeks. Free speech in action. A Pacifica value, yes?
AFDI is probably better known as SIOA, Stop Islamization of America. Again, a cutting-edge topic – as witnessed by urgent preemptory legislation carried in various state chambers west of the Appalachians. Keeping the citizenry safe.
SIOA came to prominence in 2010 when it protested a Muslim group planning to build a cultural & inter-faith centre a few blocks from the Twin Towers site. It gave plenty of free publicity to the two creators of SIOA, Pamela Geller & Robert Spencer.
But AFDI/SIOA do bring people together, perhaps unique in earning the condemnation of both the Southern Poverty Law Center & the Anti-Defamation League. No easy feat. But for judge Paul, the law’s the law.
We’ll see how Paul interprets the law today, be it in favour of the defenders of WBAI, or in favour of dictatorial wrecking by the Interim Executive Wrecker.
https://www.nytimes.com/1994/07/03/style/weddings-e-f-mandelstam-paul-engelmayer.html (nuptials; “[h]is mother retired as a remedial reading specialist with the New York City Public Schools. His father is a lawyer in New York”; his parents-in-law, one a lawyer, the other “retired as the managing director of Ascap, the music licensing organization in New York”)
As Alex says, it augments his remarks made Tu15Oct on the steps of NY City Hall. Given the political points he makes, & his assessment that Vernile & McCoy are more than they might seem, it warrants being a separate post on this blog.
However, what I said on Tuesday still stands: we need, & deserve, an explanation of why a temporary Chair was elected in secret. Not only does this violate the transparency principle of democratic proceedings, it’s also contrary to the Communications Act of 1934 – §396(k)(4); page 216 of the PDF. https://transition.fcc.gov/Reports/1934new.pdf
Even when Pacificans are victims of egregious secret manoeuvring, they themselvesseem incapable of breaking with the unthinking obdurate & deep secrecy culture permeating the organisation. Yet, as passed down from the fathers to Primo Levi, if not now, when? The politics of ‘not in front of the children’ really has to end.
And this opens out into a much wider vista. It’s crucial that the new PNB majority speaks publicly – to members, staff, listeners, interested vendors, creditors, regulators, & potential donors & grantors. In a struggle, it’s essential to communicate. And the PNB minority seems to have control of Pacifica’s website & meetings archive. The new PNB majority must start a website or blog, not only posting their statements & reliable info, but also opening a discussion forum. Just in terms of disseminating the most basic info, it was absurd that the PNB tumult starting Th10Oct wasn’t made public by the PNB solidarians but by Tracy Rosenberg, in her Pacifica in Exile newsletter, released Su13Oct after the PNB sessions that day. That is the responsibility of protagonists, no-one else.https://pacificaradiowatch.home.blog/2019/10/14/can-this-be-true-qm-has-pnb-reversed-wrecker-vernile-s-wrecking-qm-will-he-resign-in-disgust-qm/
In the meantime, Mr Steinberg . . .
~~~
I would have said something about the politics of the coup. But I was under pressure to finish my remarks quickly. The lineup at the Press Conference gave too much time to people who were talking in general about WBAI and not about the coup. We did not hear nearly enough from [the Chair of the WBAI Local Station Board], Carolyn McIntyre, or the WBAI GM, Berthold Reimers, or the WBAI Program Director, Linda Perry.
It is now obvious that John Vernile was selected for this job to do a corporate style takeover of WBAI and to drown up whatever radical voices remain on WBAI and afterwards the rest of the network. My guess is that there is big money and powerful people behind Vernile and Quincy McCoy [my emphases]. They are attempting a ‘cleansing’ operation to remove any dissident voices to the left of the Democratic Party establishment from having any say on the politics and culture of this country. It’s of a piece with Hillary Clinton’s attempt to demonize Democratic Party presidential candidate Tulsi Gabbard, who is the only consistently anti-imperialist candidate running as a Democrat.
Alex Steinberg WBAI Director to the Pacifica National Board [Sa19Oct2019]
Th10Oct, IEW Vernile, using the name of Pacifica Foundation Inc., got the NY court to remove almost all the temporary restraining order against him
Below is a note by Tom Hillgardner. The WBAI peeps got a temporary restraining order (TRO) on the evening of the coup, M7Oct, to both reverse the firings & allow restoration of local programming. IEW Vernile, in the name of Pacifica Foundation Inc., then used members’ subscriptions & listeners’ donations to hire a Wall Street legal firm – literally, at #100, no less, on the 20th floor. https://www.foster.com/pp/bio-kara-steger.pdf?11341(doubt if she has a corner office, just yet)
But on Th10Oct the court watered down this TRO, merely prohibiting staff firings (document #26, page 344 – yes, the photocopying alone is costing members & listeners a fortune).
Finally, some details of the federal court hearing were provided W16Oct by Tracy Rosenberg, in a somewhat garbled post, ‘Legal wheels spin’: https://pacificainexile.org/archives/2792.
~~~
There was no court proceeding today [F18Oct]. The hearing on the TRO [temporary restraining order] that originally was scheduled to be heard in state court on 10/18 was cancelled by operation of law when defendant Pacifica removed the case to federal court. The federal judge then continued that TRO, as modified by the Appellate Division, until October 21 when the court has scheduled the initial court conference, the hearing of Pacifica’s motion to preliminarily enjoin the effectiveness of motions passed by a majority of directors at a 10/13 board meeting, and the hearing of the plaintiff’s motion to remand this action back to NYS Supreme Court. This last item will have priority as it involves the question of whether the federal court has jurisdiction, which I believe the court will rule that it does not [emphases added]. Such a ruling would vacate the federal court TRO temporarily restraining the effectiveness of the motions passed by a majority of directors at the October 13 meeting of the Pacifica Board and would require withdrawal by Pacifica attorneys from representing Pacifica in that action.
This Wednesday, 16Oct, a group was again outside the Pacifica building in Berkeley, protesting the breakers’ coup against WBAI & Pacifica. (Vid is 15:58.)
One speaker is Tom Voorhees, a Pacifica director, & KPFA listeners-delegate (1:36). The breakers are trying to oust him as a director, replace him by a breaker, turning the PNB back into a 11-11 paralysis. Two weeks or so after the launch of their petition for a new Pacifica constitution, the breakers on Th26Sep called a KPFA delegates assembly to oust Mr Voorhees. This takes place Sa26Oct. It’s crucial that he’s supported both within the meeting & outside. https://kpftx.org/pacalendar/cal_show1.php?eventdate=20191026
. . . screenshot of the homepage, taken the day of the coup, M7Oct2019 – the sole webpage WBAI has, showing the audio button of the relay, https://www.wbai.org/ . . .
With the coup at WBAI by the breakers, a new phrase entered the lexicon of PacificaWorld. Everyone wondered what it was, where it came from. It may surprise people, but Pacifica Across America, both the term & the idea, was mentioned seven weeks before, by KPFA station manager, Quincy McCoy. The occasion was the Sa17Aug2019 KPFA Local Station Board. In response to what proved to be a serendipitous question, McCoy referred to Pacifica Across America in connection with Interim Executive Wrecker John Vernile & SiriusXM, a broadcaster:
[…] a series of programs that we want to put together called, er, I think – the working title is Pacifica Across America, & that would be a list of the best shows of Pacifica that would run on, on Sirius & also on the Pacifica website”
Audio feed? There is no audio “Pacifica website”. But WBAI has a website. It’s now a single webpage, emblazoned with Pacifica Across America. Beneath it is an audio button of the 24-hour alienation organised by the PAA “Consulting Programmer”. A certain Quincy McCoy. (And, of course, it’s not being pumped out on https://pacifica.org/.)
Seven weeks. And how long had IEW Vernile been in the job? 17 days, having started 1Aug. Now why would the IEW prioritise starting this Pacifica Across America project in his first two weeks? Before visiting the stations? Without having raised this idea in a publicly recorded Pacifica meeting? Why?
The clue lies in the months before. In the planning of how to oust ED Maxie Jackson:
The five-person PNB Personnel Cttee hadn’t met in Feb & Mar. But it was awoken from its slumber. And put to work. Starting Tu16Apr, it met each & every week, for 12 weeks. The last five meetings, from M3June, were all in private. M1July everything was ready, agreeing its ED evaluation report for the PNB. The next evening, the PNB ousted Maxie. Friday, he left his job. Sorted.
If Pacifica’s good at anything, this is it. (Yes, it bears repeating. Pacifica rarely gets complimented these days. Have a heart.)
Four weeks later, Vernile appeared out of the blue. Or so it seemed.
And the personnel of the Personnel Cttee? Chair Jan Goodman (KPFK listeners-delegate), Sabrina Jacobs (KPFA staff-delegate), Donnie Grumpf (KPFA listeners-delegate), Adrienne LaViolette (KPFT listeners-delegate), Robin Collier (affiliates) . . . more than a majority – and all breakers.
It seems IEW Vernile came into the job already knowing what he was going to do.
PacificaWatch 